One of the things that I have found helpful in running is music. When I was in high school, I tried running a few times, mostly as conditioning for football or other sports. I never really liked it... sadly. I think part of it was the absence of music. When I was in high school, portable, personal CD players were the cool item to own. Unfortunately, many of them weren't good for running (you know the whole "CD skipping" thing isn't cool when you're trying to listen to something). Thankfully Steve Jobs and others introduced us to the iPod. I have an iPod shuffle that goes with me on every run.

Since many of my runs are long and I run 4 or 5 days a week... I'm ALWAYS looking for fresh music. The picture above is an actual screen shot image from my iTunes library. I have created running playlists of music for almost every day of the week. Each of those playlists contains different songs. Only a couple of songs have crossed over into multiple playlists. Additionally, "mega run" is a playlist containing all the songs from the various days for really long (20+ mile) runs and "rockin playlist" is something that I keep for those times when I really need a driving song to get me going.

Why do this?
Because it keeps the music fresh. I don't hear the same songs day after day after day. Some of the songs in these playlists have been in my playlist since I started running 2 1/2 years ago. But only having them up for a listen once or twice a week keeps them fresh.

Additionally, I'm always looking for fresh tunes... and adding them to whichever day's playlist is the shortest (since I usually listen to my music on shuffle, songs at the end of the playlist have an equal opportunity).

It's just a simple tip that keeps me going... because while I'm running, music keeps me going.

What keeps you going? Additionally... what songs keep you going (if you listen to music)? Feel free to add comments below.

Keep running friends!
JC

Disclaimer (if you're into that sort of thing): Jim is not a
professional runner nor is this blog endorsed by any company. These
thoughts are merely the thoughts and experiences on one runner. What
works and what doesn't work from a practical level. Jim hasn't set any
records, but he's run a few races (Marathon: 4h 22m / Half-Marathon: 2h
3m / 5k: 22m 57s) and he's been around the block!